September 2016

IN THIS ISSUE: ………………………..

Advice! 1

Quote for Life 1

A word from the

chair 2

Director's report 3

Training Dept. 4

Straight from

Malashi 6

Tip from Rozanne 7

September calendar

8

………………………..

Someone to tell it to is one of the fundamental needs of

human beings Miles Franklin (1954)

Word from the outgoing Chairperson September 2016

Spring is here and with it new beginnings.

It is with great pleasure that I announce our new

Chairperson 2016 - 2018

Sheila Houghton

and Vice Chairperson

Sharon Pearlman

There is still a lot of work for us to do, and if we all do our part we can make a

huge difference together. We look forward to wonderful and exciting things in

their very capable and productive hands.

God Bless

Sonya Rayne

Outgoing Chairperson

FROM THE DIRECTOR………….

The LifeLine National AGM is the one time in the year when all the LifeLine directors in the

country get together for three days. The AGM is held at the Salt Rock Hotel on the Kwazulu

Natal North Coast. Although it can be draining to sit in a conference room for hours on end,

this is also a time when we get to exchange stories, get much needed mentoring and support, as

well as debrief with each other. While all centres are autonomous, we have much in common

with regards to the challenges we face.

This year we attended a presentation by our new National Director, Mr MJ Takalo. He

presented us with his vision of organizational reorientation and the realignment of LLSA,

including service expansions and reaching out to untapped markets. While this vision will be

preceded by a five day strat plan with all the centres, it looks like there are some interesting

and new developments in store for LifeLine in the not so distant future. All this can only happen

with an understanding of how each centre differs, not only with regards to our human capital

and other resources, but also our very unique community needs.

This presentation reminded me of the uniqueness of the Pretoria Centre - our staff, volunteers

and our community. I am proud to say that we have taken every endeavor to stay relevant to

our community needs. An example is our collaboration with Legal Aid. This much needed service

to our clients had the paralegal very busy recently on his first day at LifeLine, and I am happy

to say that a very positive and fruitful partnership was formed here, leaving both counsellor and

client more empowered.

With the Golf Day around the corner, I once again want to thank all our volunteers for their

continued generosity of spirit. I want to thank you all for your efforts, support and assistance

towards making this day a success.

I will be away for two weeks in September, taking some time to recharge my energy levels and I

look forward to returning with a renewed fire and verve. I leave the centre in very capable

hands, knowing that it now runs like a well-oiled machine.

Much love,

Teresa

Training Department Hallo LifeLine Family

Introduction,

As we were celebrating Womens' Month in our

country, there were a lot of celebrations, seminars,

workshops, etc. held with the purpose of empowering

women. I trust that you had the opportunity to

participate in some of the movements that took place

during the past month.

One thing for sure that, there were many messages sent via social media that you would

have received intended to strengthen women. I got a lot of these and I was very encouraged

and spirited by them.

Training Report – August 2016 Lay Counselling Skills Course.

During the month of August, we started with our Lay Counselling Skills Course for the

course participants who attended the June/July 2016 Personal Growth Course.

The Lay Counselling Skills Course started in mid-August 2016, and we are currently

presenting the weekday morning course and the Saturday course. We had to cancel the

weekday evening course because of insufficient participants and also most of our

volunteers are not available to facilitate at evening sessions. Some of the participants of the

recent PG weekday evening course joined in with the Saturday Counselling Skills Course,

although unfortunately some did not continue on to the Counselling Skills Course.

Thus far the progress of the two courses is good. We only have a few more sessions to go,

after which we will move on to the Selection process. Thank you to all the facilitators who

are assisting with facilitation in the current courses. I greatly appreciate your contribution,

but also I want to highlight that there are volunteers who have availed themselves to

facilitate at all the sessions, once again thank you, your efforts are valued.

Ongoing Training

We had our Ongoing Training session on the 24th

of August 2016. The speaker was

Matthew Mulholland, a registered Clinical Psychologist, and he gave a wonderful

presentation on Stress and Anxiety. The training was informative and I personally

benefited, both for the purpose of counselling and as well in my personal life, from most of

the aspects that were shared.

Here are some of the aspects that he focussed on in his presentation,

Symptoms of stress

Myths about stress

Defenses of stress

Strategies of dealing with stress

Causes of anxiety

Indeed it was a very relevant training for us as the LifeLine family. Thanks to Rozanne

Ashworth for arranging the speaker, it is much appreciated.

As I conclude,

We have added another Personal Growth Course before the end of the year, which we will

present as a Saturday course only. This course will take place during October 2016.

Kindly inform those who might have missed our other training sessions during this year

that they can still register for the upcoming course at the end of September 2016. They can

also contact the office for the dates.

Happy spring season to you all,

Till next time,

Agnes Semono

Training Diary

Selection Process

29th & 30th September and 1st October 2016

October 2016 Personal Growth Course Registrations

29th September and 1st October 2016

Continuous Development Training (Wednesday morning)

21st September 2016 - Bereavement

Evening Ongoing Training 21st September 2016 – Care for the Caregiver

Straight from Malashi

Hi there LifeLiners, I trust that you are all good and well. Towards the end of August, on the 26th to be specific, we did the exhibition with various other organisations in Far East of Mamelodi. Seeing that it was women’s month, we targeted women in order to inform them of the services that each organisation offers. The day went so well, and we came in contract with lots of people, especially women. So I guess our wishes were granted. Let’s face it; more women are on the receiving end of unwelcome treatment. I think we are facing huge challenges where there are social problems, resulting from a combination of a patriarchal society and false ideologies of masculinity. In that case, I think we should educate men and encourage them to refrain from doing anything that might hurt women, or any living being for that matter.

We were invited to do a talk at the Women's Celebration Event in Erasmus near Soshanguve. I went there, together with Kgomotso Masera and Matshidiso Mongale, who represented us by giving a talk. There were plus minus 300 people of which 95% were females. I think it was suitable that she spoke because the event was organised for women. We did another talk for women at the Department of Social Development in Kwaggafontein, Mpumalanga. I went there with Thandeka Makhanda, who did the presentation. There were about 40 women from different organisations, plus two other men from the Department of Social Development, so I was not alone. I also did some Trauma Debriefing Sessions here and outside, as well as at the Automobile Association in Kyalami, Midrand. One thing that I have realised whilst doing these sessions is that crime is affecting us all, in one way or the other. What makes it even worse is that crime in South Africa is very aggressive and cruel even when not necessary. I am just happy that we are there to help the victims to pick up the pieces and move on with their lives. I guess we are trying to “cure” them since they couldn’t prevent it. Prevention is better than cure, they keep saying, however, in this case I believe cure is necessary.

The heart - If only we had a “purified emotional centre” in our hearts, many things would become so much easier for us. The heart really is pure – only voices take it up so quickly that we don’t distinguish what is said. If one learns to listen to a heart, it will tell those things so clearly – what must be done, what must not be done, the real nature of people and places and things. Only it speaks so quietly, so eloquently, so subtly, and immediately a flood of reactions, explanations, excuses and theories have swamped it, and we do not even recognise that it speaks. If we could only listen carefully to what it wants to say, and remain still until it has spoken, one cannot really do the wrong things. The heart has the gift of tongues and it understands all languages. If only we knew. The heart is inside of you and knows everything about you, so you can only lie to yourself, but not to it, at least not in the long run.

“It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends.” ~ J. K. Rowling Peace be unto you

Counselling tip #16 from Rozanne:

People don't need to be rescued or saved. That is disempowering. They need a listening ear, knowledge and skills, in order to self-heal. That is empowering.

September 2016 Calendar

September 2016

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesda

y Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3

CSC Session 6 CSC Session 4

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

CSC Session 7

CSC Session 8

CSC Session 5

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

CSC Session 9 CSC Session 6

LAZ B'day ADRI B'day WENDY B'day

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Continuous Dev -

Bereavement

Ongoing Training -

Care for the

Caregiver

SONYA B'day

25 26 27 28 29 30 Notes:

October PG

Course

Registration

Selection Interviews

Selection Interviews

Board Meeting